How do you get the whole family to embrace camping?
Easy, bring all the comforts of home into a natural setting. Allow the kids to poke sticks in fires, marvel at wildlife passing through your field of view, enjoy a home cooked meal, a chilled wine or beer, count the stars as they come out and retire to a comfortable bed after a warm shower.
Impossible? well not really.
There are a few really neat looking vehicles that will allow you to explore almost anywhere in the world, with most of life's luxuries to hand. Some that look amazing are the Australian built Earth Cruiser and the Adventurer 4x4 Motorhome.
The only problem is the price tag - and the fact most of these vehicles are perfectly set up for a couple. There is no market for a self contained family 4x4 touring vehicle except for in America, home of the Earth Roamer based on the F550 truck (I don't mind their Jeep version, but perhaps once the kids leave home). These are all highly specialised vehicles and if you wanted to tour the world's remotest areas, they would be ideal. In the meantime I can continue to use Google to dream and try to find the perfect compromise :)
Most of us mortals are constrained to using a 4WD wagon or ute that doubles as the family hack during the week. Now whilst a vehicle of this type is more than big enough if your camping equipment consists of a swag and an esky, there are a few creature comforts necessary to ensure repeated camping experiences with the wife and family.
In 2014 we traveled around Australia with our young family. This blog records our 'big lap'. Now we are home, our traveling is far from over. Our future adventures, in our Amarok Ute "Rocky" and Aussie Swag Camper Trailer "Matilda" will be shared here too.
Check out this great e-book: Save Our Selves - A guide to getting help in remote areas
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Monday, 29 August 2011
Free Hand Winch!!!
After our last camping trip turned out to be a little chilly, we have been waiting for warmer weather to head out under canvas again. As with all these things, life gets in the road of camping adventures, and finding free weekends seems to be more and more challenging. Still we can take solace in the beautiful weather that has graced the Southern Highlands recently as we re-discover our old friend, the Sun.
With a busy schedule of birthday parties, school excursions and home renovations, I haven’t had much time to tinker with the Terracan or the Camper, Matilda. Indeed the camper lies under wraps eagerly anticipating the next opportunity to get dirty, whenever that might be.
Always an opportunist I had been keeping an eye out for a Hand Winch. Second hand winches are available, but the quality was a concern. Also cheap winches from China seemed to make the grade, but I was not confident to leap in and purchase one. You can thus imagine joy when I ducked into Repco for a couple of small hose claps the other day to discover a 20% discount for NRMA members and a lonely Hand Winch and Tree Truck Protector looking for a new home.
To her credit, Jo didn’t even roll her eyes when I came home with my $400 hose clamps that came with a free winch and tree trunk protector…. I am a lucky man!
But having a new toy in its packet is a sad state of affairs. I was determined NOT to be on the side of a track, bogged to the gunwales, only to find out the new winch is missing some critical piece of hardware or worse still I am unable to make it work. I elected to give the winch a try on the weekend.
With a busy schedule of birthday parties, school excursions and home renovations, I haven’t had much time to tinker with the Terracan or the Camper, Matilda. Indeed the camper lies under wraps eagerly anticipating the next opportunity to get dirty, whenever that might be.
Always an opportunist I had been keeping an eye out for a Hand Winch. Second hand winches are available, but the quality was a concern. Also cheap winches from China seemed to make the grade, but I was not confident to leap in and purchase one. You can thus imagine joy when I ducked into Repco for a couple of small hose claps the other day to discover a 20% discount for NRMA members and a lonely Hand Winch and Tree Truck Protector looking for a new home.
To her credit, Jo didn’t even roll her eyes when I came home with my $400 hose clamps that came with a free winch and tree trunk protector…. I am a lucky man!
But having a new toy in its packet is a sad state of affairs. I was determined NOT to be on the side of a track, bogged to the gunwales, only to find out the new winch is missing some critical piece of hardware or worse still I am unable to make it work. I elected to give the winch a try on the weekend.
Monday, 1 August 2011
Oallen Ford - July 2011
This is my first blog from Blogger - hopefully a little easier to use on the road and import into the Australia4WD site. Please let me know how it works.
How cold do you want it?
I am sure there is an expression somewhere about Mad Dogs and Englishmen being out in the fierce midday sun. If so there must be an expression of similar but opposite sentiment about camping in the middle of winter…
But I had finished making a bike rack for the camper and was keen to test it out. Also we had missed the opportunity to get away a few weeks ago and my feet were getting itchy for a night or two under canvas, so with half an eye on the forecast, we set off.
We decided for want of convenience Oallen Ford, a beautiful spot on the Shoalhaven River in between Nerriga and Tarago. Normally the place is full of campers and their dogs and bogans with their hounds, however we were a little surprised and relieved to have the place all but to ourselves.
Our Campsite
We set up camp and enjoyed a curry I had prepared earlier in the day whilst the kids were at school. The Thermal Cooker dispensed the delicious curry which the family devoured wholeheartedly. It seemed that in the short hour or two since we had arrived the boy’s appetites had grown enormously and I was glad I had prepared double rations.
How cold do you want it?
I am sure there is an expression somewhere about Mad Dogs and Englishmen being out in the fierce midday sun. If so there must be an expression of similar but opposite sentiment about camping in the middle of winter…
But I had finished making a bike rack for the camper and was keen to test it out. Also we had missed the opportunity to get away a few weeks ago and my feet were getting itchy for a night or two under canvas, so with half an eye on the forecast, we set off.
We decided for want of convenience Oallen Ford, a beautiful spot on the Shoalhaven River in between Nerriga and Tarago. Normally the place is full of campers and their dogs and bogans with their hounds, however we were a little surprised and relieved to have the place all but to ourselves.
Our Campsite
We set up camp and enjoyed a curry I had prepared earlier in the day whilst the kids were at school. The Thermal Cooker dispensed the delicious curry which the family devoured wholeheartedly. It seemed that in the short hour or two since we had arrived the boy’s appetites had grown enormously and I was glad I had prepared double rations.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Snow - and the longest journey to get there!
With all the cold weather blasting its way over the southern tablelands this past week or so, I had it on good authority that there would be a good dusting of snow in the Brindabella Mountains, just south of Canberra. I figured when the BOM said there were likely to be blizzard conditions and snow down to 900 metres we would have as good as chance as any of finding plenty of the white stuff to play in.
In previous years we had organised a convoy with either the good folk from this forum, or from our local community to go into the hills with the simple objective of finding enough snow for the kids to make a snowman, have a snowfight and perhaps even a simple toboggan (on an old boogie board). We have found snow on each of our previous excursions to the south of Picadilly Circus on the Mount Franklin Road.
The late notice meant we were setting forth solo. Maxtrax were loaded into Terry, along with a primus stove, dry clothes, lunch and extra provisions for the Hobbits.
The Little Helpers are excited to be heading south!
So off we set – confidently proceeding over Uriarra Crossing and on our way up the mountains. The little helpers knew we were off to find snow, but we hadn't promised anything until we saw the mountains in the distance, with a great white colouring... excitement was building, promises were made that we would be soon playing in the snow when disaster struck...
In previous years we had organised a convoy with either the good folk from this forum, or from our local community to go into the hills with the simple objective of finding enough snow for the kids to make a snowman, have a snowfight and perhaps even a simple toboggan (on an old boogie board). We have found snow on each of our previous excursions to the south of Picadilly Circus on the Mount Franklin Road.
The late notice meant we were setting forth solo. Maxtrax were loaded into Terry, along with a primus stove, dry clothes, lunch and extra provisions for the Hobbits.
The Little Helpers are excited to be heading south!
So off we set – confidently proceeding over Uriarra Crossing and on our way up the mountains. The little helpers knew we were off to find snow, but we hadn't promised anything until we saw the mountains in the distance, with a great white colouring... excitement was building, promises were made that we would be soon playing in the snow when disaster struck...
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
4WD Storage - How we fit it all in...
One of the challenges facing any family going camping is how to fit everything in, and more importantly, how to keep everything organised during the trip. Our first camping trip in our humble Subaru nearly ended in disaster. Everything we needed seemed to be at the bottom of the pile of gear in the back, and required a major exercise in repacking every time we wanted to access it.
Needless to say a new system was required - and fast if I was ever to convince the family that camping could be fun!
Along came the Terracan, and I started thinking about how we could make life easier for us when we went camping. I had a few rudimentary ideas running around my head, when we bought an alloy sump guard. With the sump guard came a wooden box that the former owner had made for his newly traded Terracan.
The simple box structure is made out of 12mm ply
The top had cleats to allow use of the original cargo net
It looked like a great template from which to base our draw system. We thought we would start using it with the aim of working out what we wanted from a draw system. Funnily enough, we have worked out a system to fit the box!
We found some plastic tubs at Bunnings / Magnet Mart that fit perfectly in the box. They stack inside each other if required, or on top of each other if full of stuff. You can also purchase lids it you want. Originally there was a fridge slide on the right hand side, but we found we could fit a tub neatly in the space, with enough room for our esky to sit on top. On the left hand side we can stack up to three standard tubs, with enough room for a folding 1200 x 600mm table to sit flush next to them.
This is our most common configuration - the bottom box on the left contains heavy tools and spares
We can fit the tubs in various configurations:
We can even put two tubs on the top shelf - which is handy when camping. Usually we can keep the top relatively open, but when tent based camping, the top shelf contains most of our bedding, and it also will easily fit our camp chairs and bench.
There is enough room on the sides to shove all manner of items - we tend to put the kids sports gear on the right hand side (totem tennis, cricket bat and ball and picnic rugs). On the left we can fit in a first aid kit, axe, shovel and various ropes and odd bits. With careful packing, sleeping mats can also fit shoved down the side.
An added bonus of this style of draws is that we can do the majority of packing inside the house (or shed) and simply slide the draws in when required. This is fantastic as it means that we can get most of our packing done early (or leave all our gear packed) but don't have to leave it in the car. You can see on the right one of the taller tubs we use sometimes - it is compatible with the smaller tubs.
It is great being able to pack everything inside and just take the full box to the car once!
One other thing that has made our lives a lot easier is a seat-back organiser for the Little Helpers. There is plenty of room in this offering from Supercheap Auto for colouring in pens, colouring book, a few matchbox cars and a water bottle. It has worn surprisingly well considering the purchase price but I think will need to be replaced soon with something a little more hard wearing. It means the boys have their own little space that they look after and allows plenty of activities to keep them amused on the road. No we don't have a DVD player, and we hope to keep it that way.
Supercheap Auto Seatback Organiser
We have been trying a few different options with where we keep everything. On our last trip we stored the camper's awnings in the car, and used the space under the bed in the camper for clothing (in baskets we borrowed from one of the boy's wardrobes). It worked really well and made life a lot easier once we had set up, as we weren't tripping over a bag of clothes in the camper. Once we had the awning set up, we had plenty more space in the car, which was welcome.
Of course it is all a work in progress, and subject to constant change and modification (but that is half the fun), we have found that sometimes a really simple and cheap solution is really effective, and actually suits our purposes more than a more expensive inbuilt unit might.
Needless to say a new system was required - and fast if I was ever to convince the family that camping could be fun!
Along came the Terracan, and I started thinking about how we could make life easier for us when we went camping. I had a few rudimentary ideas running around my head, when we bought an alloy sump guard. With the sump guard came a wooden box that the former owner had made for his newly traded Terracan.
The simple box structure is made out of 12mm ply
The top had cleats to allow use of the original cargo net
It looked like a great template from which to base our draw system. We thought we would start using it with the aim of working out what we wanted from a draw system. Funnily enough, we have worked out a system to fit the box!
We found some plastic tubs at Bunnings / Magnet Mart that fit perfectly in the box. They stack inside each other if required, or on top of each other if full of stuff. You can also purchase lids it you want. Originally there was a fridge slide on the right hand side, but we found we could fit a tub neatly in the space, with enough room for our esky to sit on top. On the left hand side we can stack up to three standard tubs, with enough room for a folding 1200 x 600mm table to sit flush next to them.
This is our most common configuration - the bottom box on the left contains heavy tools and spares
We can fit the tubs in various configurations:
We can even put two tubs on the top shelf - which is handy when camping. Usually we can keep the top relatively open, but when tent based camping, the top shelf contains most of our bedding, and it also will easily fit our camp chairs and bench.
There is enough room on the sides to shove all manner of items - we tend to put the kids sports gear on the right hand side (totem tennis, cricket bat and ball and picnic rugs). On the left we can fit in a first aid kit, axe, shovel and various ropes and odd bits. With careful packing, sleeping mats can also fit shoved down the side.
An added bonus of this style of draws is that we can do the majority of packing inside the house (or shed) and simply slide the draws in when required. This is fantastic as it means that we can get most of our packing done early (or leave all our gear packed) but don't have to leave it in the car. You can see on the right one of the taller tubs we use sometimes - it is compatible with the smaller tubs.
It is great being able to pack everything inside and just take the full box to the car once!
One other thing that has made our lives a lot easier is a seat-back organiser for the Little Helpers. There is plenty of room in this offering from Supercheap Auto for colouring in pens, colouring book, a few matchbox cars and a water bottle. It has worn surprisingly well considering the purchase price but I think will need to be replaced soon with something a little more hard wearing. It means the boys have their own little space that they look after and allows plenty of activities to keep them amused on the road. No we don't have a DVD player, and we hope to keep it that way.
Supercheap Auto Seatback Organiser
We have been trying a few different options with where we keep everything. On our last trip we stored the camper's awnings in the car, and used the space under the bed in the camper for clothing (in baskets we borrowed from one of the boy's wardrobes). It worked really well and made life a lot easier once we had set up, as we weren't tripping over a bag of clothes in the camper. Once we had the awning set up, we had plenty more space in the car, which was welcome.
Of course it is all a work in progress, and subject to constant change and modification (but that is half the fun), we have found that sometimes a really simple and cheap solution is really effective, and actually suits our purposes more than a more expensive inbuilt unit might.
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